Old West Still Lives : Cowboys are once more engaged in the annual roundup at the O’Neill family’s 111-year-old Rancho Mission Viejo. While housing tracts stand on much of the county where cattle once roamed, 35,000 acres of O’Neill land remain devoted to ranching.

From a ridge overlooking a wide vista of rolling hills covered with grass, cactus and wildflowers, the scene on Monday looked as it must have to cowboys more than a century ago.

Cows and their calves drinking peacefully at a pond were surrounded by men on horseback who would close in on them slowly, stealthily; then twirl their ropes to urge the herd down the trail toward a corral.

A central tradition of the Old West, the annual cattle roundup was played out Monday in South County five miles off busy Interstate 5 at Rancho Mission Viejo, one of California’s largest operating cattle ranches.

Just a few decades ago, when cattle roamed the range from Oceanside to Santa Ana, the cattle roundup was a long-awaited highlight of the year when neighbors would pitch in to help one another with the herding, roping and branding.

But as the South County ranches have given way to housing developments, the 35,000 remaining acres of cattle country belonging to the O’Neill family have become something of a sanctuary for a former way of life in which men were admired for their knowledge of horseflesh and ability to cleanly rope a calf and wrestle it to the ground.

Monday began a weeklong process in which Rancho Mission Viejo marks its 111th year in cattle ranching by corralling its herd and counting and marking the youngsters with its distinctive “Rafter M” brand.

The herd at Rancho Mission Viejo numbers about 1,300 cattle this year. Last November and December, an additional 800 calves were born. During the roundup, the cowboys will process those young animals one by one, at a rate of about 200 per day.

Shortly after sunrise Monday, the group assembled under the leadership of Anthony (Tony) Moiso, president and CEO of the Santa Margarita Co., which manages Rancho Mission Viejo. Moiso is also a great-grandson of Richard O’Neill, an Irish immigrant who co-founded the ranch with silver baron James C. Flood in 1882.

“It is going to be a real rodeo,” Moiso said Monday morning as he joined seven other cowboys and set out on a two-hour, eight-mile ride into Cristianitas Canyon, named to recall the baptism there of two Indian babies by early Spanish missionaries.

As on all roundup days, the regular ranch hands were joined by guests eager to give their cowboy skills a whirl. One of them was Harley May, something of a hero among his peers for his legendary rodeo career, including the winning of three world championships for steer wrestling.

By 8:30 a.m. the team had herded about 200 cows and an equal number of calves into the corrals. First, the cowboys and their horses sorted the calves from their mothers, who bawled in disapproval.

Then came the roping of the calves, the cowboys’ throwing a lariat so the animal would trot into its noose to be dragged to a separate, fenced area.

Each calf was swiftly dehorned, vaccinated and branded, the air filling with the pungent odor of seared hide. The males were also castrated and injected with a hormone to speed weight gain. And the ears of the males were notched so their sex could be easily recognized on the range.

Once let loose, the bloodied calves scurried to their mother’s sides for comforting.

Gilbert G. Aguirre, who heads the ranching operations under Moiso, said branding has changed very little over the years. “The only modernization is better vaccines and better horses.”

One difference between rodeos and roundups, Aguirre said, is that roundup cowboys take more care not to harm the animals. “We have got to do it the gentlest we can,” he said, “because the calves are worth $1 a pound.” By the time they are sold to feedlots in Idaho next June, he said, each newly branded calf will be worth about $570.

There is special cause for celebration because this year the ranch emerged from a drought that had put its water wells out of production for the last three years and forced a sharp cutback in the herd.

Last year, there was only enough grass on the ranch to support about 450 cows. After the recent series of rainstorms, the hills are now verdant enough to nurture a herd of more than 2,000 cows and calves.

The rain was almost too much of a good thing. The most recent downpours delayed this year’s roundup a month, giving the calves an opportunity to gain another 50 or so pounds for a total weight of 300--enough to challenge the brawn of horses and cowboys alike.

Moiso heads the O’Neill family’s efforts to develop a 5,000-acre portion of the ranch into the community of Rancho Santa Margarita. But he loves nothing better than a roundup. His face beamed as he galloped after maverick calves that had wandered from the herd to urge them down the muddy path to the corral.

Moiso’s firsthand involvement in the roundup reflects the O’Neill family’s awareness of its cattle-ranching heritage.

“I consider myself a rancher who is also a community developer,” Moiso said. “But I am a rancher first. I am proud of perpetuating ranching in Orange County.”

Moiso said he is following in the footsteps of his uncle Richard J. O’Neill, the 69-year-old patriarch of the family, who has said he is determined to “always have a cow herd at Rancho Mission Viejo” by saving more than 20,000 acres south of Ortega Highway from development.

Besides the ranch near San Juan Capistrano, the O’Neill heirs own a ranch with another 1,500 cows in North Fork, Nev., 50 miles outside of Elko.

Moiso said the family cattle business has been profitable for the last four years, benefiting from better market prices. But he added that there have been “some real tough years” because of a decline in the nation’s per capita beef consumption.

Aguirre observed that, ironically, the family’s development endeavors give him the “luxury” of running cattle on land that is becoming increasingly valuable.

“I am fortunate to have a family that has been in the cattle business 111 years and will be in it another 100 years,” he said.

Cattle Call The Orange County beef “harvest” has been a profitable enterpirse for local ranches despite dwindling production due to drought-related problems. At Rancho Mission Viejo, one of Californa’s largest cattle ranches, about 800 calves were born last November and December. Cattle Sold ‘91: 1,761 Market Value ‘91: $1.02